Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-05-12
See Our Elegant Hats and Ties!

significant affair. Existing and look
ed mt apart from such surroundings as
it II corrected with, consideration of
the difficulty and expense of mining
such a vein to supply an intermittent
and wlntry local demand, might we'll
diminish and even annihilate lis COM
mercial value; but viewed in connec-
ton with the thick and workable
body of fire clay that underlies it, all
its supposed insignificance vanishes A;
it assumes the appearance of an i'm
portant industrial factor and becomes
part of a strata capable of being
mined, delivered and manipulated at
u minimum cost.
Although as has been stated, it is
supposed the coal and clay measures
of Audrain county I'll out on the
line of the Chicago & Alton road
bed, about three miles east of Van
dalia; there is evidence that they
reach southeast of that city as far as
to ST. Louis county. Tins evidence
in part exists in the Missouri Geoio-
glcal Reports, from which the follow.
ing extracts are made:
'';St. Louis Liinestone.'-''This
important formation is made up of
hard crystalline gray and blush
cherry limestone, intelstratified with
thin layers of a~rgillaceous shale.
Some of the strata are impure silico
magnetism limestones, others are
silico-argillaceous and compact,
with a concoidal fracture and drab or
yellowlsh grey color" Its strait
graphical position is between the
Ferruginous sandstone and the Arch
imedes limestone" 'EThe strata I'M
DERIVING the Quarternary deposits
on which the city of St. Louis stands
belong to the superior division of the
Carboniferous system, and is the St.
Louis limestone of western geolog-
lists" 1T is about $50 feet thick"
at is we'll characterised by it's fos-
sis of which several are quite pecu-
liar
Both these rocks also exist in this
county. The st. Louis limestone
comes to the surface on Fish Branch,
and specimens of it can be seen in
the building of the Mexico Savings
Bank and in the supports of tomb
stones in the new cemetery. The
ferruginous sandstone can also be
seen on D. D. Woodward's farm.
The st. Louis limestone strata is
thus traced through Lincoln county
in the Reports. This formation
first appears 10 the bluffs of the Mis-
slssippi two miles south of Bob's
Creek, the lower buff and brown
magnetism beds occupying the upper
part of the ridges everything the Ar
chemedes limestone. The Ferru-
genous sandstone crops out on a linn
tied ares beneath the coal measures
in the high ridges. 1t is found in all
cases resting conformably upon the
st. Louis lilnestone.'
The site of the clay at Cheltenham,
St. Louis county, is thus described
in the Reports: AT the Cheiten-
ham Sulphur Springs, on the south
side Of the river Des Peres, the hills
are about seventy five feet high, and
consist chiefly of sandstone. with
some beds of sandy shale. just
above the water level We find a dark
Heterogeneous sandstone, and on the
whole rests fine grained, soft, white
sandstone. A hundred yards west of
this spring the St. Louis limestone
again appears under the coal meas
ureS.
As far as the writer remembers
there Is no description of the Chel-
tenham deposit in the Reports, but it
Is very similar to one not far from it,
thus spoken Of in them.
At Hamilton the bank presents the
following section III descending or
der:
/. yellow ferrugenous impure t'e
clay.
? Light gray fire clay.
3. Coarse ferrugepous clay.
4. Vari,2ated and purple fi,e clay
The led mt the base of the section
is purest. and that at tue top does
not answer a good purpose. In the
manufacture Of fire brick the form.
er is generally mixed with u gray fire
clay that occurs immediately under
the coal seam a quarter of q mile
west Of this locality. The mixture Of
the two clays makes an excellent
quality OF fire brick"
The writer hopes that every one
who has followed him, has come tc
the conclusion that the coal and clay
formations of Audrain are parts Of
those in St. Louis county, and be-
long to the same geological era II
is not supposed that these measure;
are exactly similar in all their con
| stltuent parts. 1t is known they arr